Film City

I am horrified that I didn't bring my camera on my travels this week. I thought it would just be a work trip - little did I know. I went to Hyderabad for a senior leadership meeting to disseminate the evaluation results of our last six months of work. By the way, I so enjoy my work. I don't dare assume that someone gets to work their entire career in a job they enjoy as much as I enjoy what I do now, so I hope I remember to cherish it. It's exciting to see that the work we do has impact. We've substantially increased the number of men who get STIs treated at our clinics and slightly increased condom use! Woo Hoo!

Okay so the meeting took place in Ramoji Film City, which turns out to be like Culver City, it's a huge area of film sets. So the first morning I went for a jog on a fake maharaja palace. First I ran up the front steps like Rocky and then ran around the outer walls and really felt like breaking into Bollywood dancing. It's a funny effect these have. The next morning I went up to the American House, which looked like something in a suburb in So Cal, but was pretty good and then through the Japanese gardens, which were beautiful (and used in Khabi Khushi Khabi Gham), then through the arizona gardens of cacti. We later went on a bus tour and the place is crazy. My favorite place was the fake Ellora/Ajanta caves, which are in Maharashtra in real life. I've always meant to go but if they are anything like the fake, I'm definitely going. They were so cool (even in plaster of paris).

Now I'm in Bangalore. It's beautiful here, in the 80s, fully spring with everything blooming. Delhi on the other hand is flooding and cold!